What's coming in April

I have lots of catching up to do with blogging, but I'll get to that later.

My big plans for April include this -- Script Frenzy -- from the fine folks who brought you NaNoWriMo.

AW Wk 4

OK. Not reading anything is supposed to prompt me to produce more... so there's really no excuse for not continuing to blog. But I have been trying to avoid the computer as much as possible, since that's where I can fritter away a lot of time--reading other people's blogs, emailing, checking in on my friends' lives on Facebook, surfing, etc. The internet is a real trap for curious people, like myself. And it's reading.

But back to The Artist's Way-- The phrases that struck me from this week/chapter:

Checkhov advised, "If you want to work on your art, work on your life." (80)

People frequently believe the creative life is grounded in fantasy. The more difficult truth is that creativity is grounded in reality, in the particular, the focused, the well observed or specifically imagined. (82)

The biggie for the week, is of course, no reading. I haven't been able to give up email entirely, but I have avoided reading novels, magazines, newspapers, others' blogs... And I've made good headway on some of my other creative ventures and knocked off a lot of things on my To-Do list that have been on there for quite some time. I know these things are related.

Week 4 - the hardest task, I think

So, Week 4 in The Artist's Way is Reading Deprivation Week. That's right. I'm not supposed to read ANYTHING this entire week.

Sunshine on Snow

After 3 snow-day cancellations again this week, the kids are finally in school again today. Albeit with a 2 hour delay. And tomorrow, with sunshine in the forecast and highs in the 50s, they'll be off to Saturday school.

But tonight I get out of the house: solo. Well, almost solo. I'm planning a dinner date with Holden Caulfield and some battered deep-fried green beans.

Artist's Way - Week Three

Passages from the book that struck me:

Anger is meant to be acted upon. It is not meant to be acted out. Anger points the direction. We are meant to use anger as fuel to take the actions we need to move where our anger points us. With a little thought, we can usually translate the message that our anger is sending us. (61)

It's my [Julia Cameron's] experience that we're much more afraid that there might be a God than we are that there might not be. (63)

The criticism that damages is that which disparages, dismisses, ridicules, or condemns. It is frequently vicious but vague and difficult to refute. (69)

Creativity is the only cure for criticism. (73)

Now while this chapter is very helpful about criticism and anger, it does not really discuss the impersonal rejection. I can't remember from the last time I worked through the book whether subsequent chapters shed any light on this, but I hope so. There's nothing in a canned response tersely printed on a 1/4 sheet of paper stuffed in an SASE that might lead to an "Ah-ha!" moment for revising the work. While Cameron admonishes "don't pick up the first doubt," I feel it might be foolishly arrogant to keep getting rejection letters and not consider that (major) revision is in order. But which part to revise? hmmm. I will stay open to advice on this issue.